Amarinder’s close aide MLA Arvind Khanna resigns

Monday, 19/01/2015

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=123132&boxid=64568&uid=&dat=2015-01-19

Chandigarh : Less than a week before his much-hyped rally is scheduled against drug menace in Amritsar, Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Captain Amarinder Singh suffered a major jolt with his yet another close aide and blue-eyed man sitting Congress MLA Arvind Khanna resigning from the membership of Legislative Assembly as well as the party.

The two-time MLA from Dhuri in Sangrur has also called it a day from politics after dropping an idea to join the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a fact he has confirmed in his statement mailed to Daily Post.

“I have decided to go ahead with my resignation from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and active politics to devote my time to my family and business. I had decided to resign earlier in April last, but had not gone ahead that time for some last minute personal reasons. I have already conveyed about this decision to the party and the leaders,” Khanna wrote in his statement.

Khanna, who was dropped from the post of Punjab Congress general secretary in the rejigged state party unit headed by his mentor’s bête-noir Partap Singh Bajwa in December, 2013, has submitted his resignation to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Charanjit Singh Atwal.

Confirming the receipt of resignation letter, Dr Atwal told Daily Post over phone that he had received Khanna’s resignation in April last year also and now again Khanna has written couple of fresh letters besides making five to six telephonic calls, requesting acceptance of his resignation.

“The process is underway and a decision to this effect would be taken within a day or two,” the Assembly Speaker said, while clarifying that as of now, the resignation was not yet accepted.

Khanna is the second Congress MLA to resign in less than a year. In March, 2014, the party’s three-time legislator from Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu had quit from the MLAship along with a former Congress Minister from Ludhiana Malkiat Singh Birmi to get re-elected on the SAD ticket. Sidhu and Birmi were also considered close lieutenants of Amarinder.

With Khanna’s resignation, the number of Congress legislators in the House has further decreased to 44. In the 117-member Vidhan Sabha, the SAD already has 58 MLAs (only one short of absolute majority) while its ally BJP has 12 members. Rest 3 are Independents, of which Rajnish Kumar from Mukerian had pledged support to Congress while 2 associate sibling members of SAD - Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains - had recently announced to withdraw their support from ruling party following denial of SAD ticket to any of them for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Arvind Khanna, an entrepreneur-turned-politician, is spearheading a social empowerment and economic emancipation drive in one of the most backward region of the state. Returning home after 16 years from UK, and subsequently US, where he received his education, Khanna was elected an MLA from Sangrur in 2002 and in 2012 from Dhuri constituency.

Ever since he joined politics, he was always seen on the right of Captain Amarinder Singh.